22 December 2016 12:35 am
Instead of importing junk foods and processed rubbish at a high cost in foreign exchange, the National Government has launched a three-year mission to grow our own nutritious food -- Grains vegetables and fruits -- in our own country. This will be done hopefully without the use of imported agro-chemicals and preservatives, some of which are known to be toxic. Even in the field of medicine, closely related to health, the government says it hopes to sign public-private- partnerships to manufacture up to 80% of the medicinal drugs we need in Sri Lanka itself. In both these areas we need to be creative and make full use of new technology for research and development.
Last week, the Daily Mirror spotlighted how latest research has shown the amazing cancer preventive properties in the mangosteen known as the queen of fruits. American medical researchers wish to do more tests on this but they are unable to get the right mangosteens. We have plenty of them but do little by way of research.
According to the Illinois University’s Dr. Joseph Mercola, an alternative medicine proponent, a market research company has found that in the United States coconut water sales rake in about $2 billion a year and will probably reach $4 billion in the next five years. More than 200 brands of coconut water are now being sold.
The well known companies Pepsi Cola and Coca Cola have their own versions of coconut water. Coco Cola’s president and general manager Deryck van Rensburg says that over the past few years the company has watched the coconut water category see an impressive spike in revenue and household penetration and ZICO solidify its position as one of the leading brands in this category.
Who knew that the clear coconut liquid described as sweet and nutty would start taking over the planet? But the Cocos nucifera has sustained at least a third of the world population continually, possibly since the beginning of humankind, Dr. Mercola says.
He also says that coconut oil, has emerged as the healthiest oil on earth. It has also emerged in the marketplace and landed in people’s kitchen and bathroom cabinets because of its dramatic health benefits.
He says besides softening the skin, relieving dandruff and reducing skin sagging and wrinkles, coconut in some form or other has a myriad of functions and the potential to heal, treat, relieve and improve numerous maladies. These include Gum disease, Cavities, Ulcers, Throat infections Inflammation, Urinary tract infections, Gonorrhoea, Pneumonia and Haemorrhoids.
While being completely non-toxic and causing zero harmful or even uncomfortable side effects, coconut water contains antioxidant properties and overall may help in preventing kidney stones, liver disease, osteoporosis, heart disease, diabetes and breast, colon and other cancers
Research has shown that coconut water also helps kill fungi and yeast infections that cause diaper rash, ringworm, thrush, and athlete’s foot; parasites such as lice and tapeworm and viruses like measles, hepatitis C, influenza, herpes, SARS and AIDS.
Dr. Mercola says one of the big draws for the seeming overnight success of coconut water is its remarkable ability to hydrate. Examples of this are not new; during World War II, troops were given medical drips of coconut water for hydration when saline was unavailable.
For centuries Sri Lanka has been blessed with tens of thousands of coconut trees and it has been one of our main cash crops for exports. But often coconut water is thrown away from our kitchens, perhaps thousands of litres a day instead of making use of its amazing medicinal properties. The government needs to take effective steps to develop the coconut water industry and make arrangements to collect the coconut water from houses in a methodical way.
As for coconut oil, some decades ago transnational food companies planted a story that coconut oil might cause high cholesterol or other heart-related ailments. As we often do, Sri Lanka just swallowed this concocted story and encouraged people to go for other imported oils. We hope that at least now more attention will be given with high tech research and development being conducted for both coconut water and coconut oil to become part of our healthy diets while we all could also export large quantities of these. We need to remember Harry Belafonte’s famous song “Coconuts have a lot of iron, make us strong like a lion”.